@Jeremie Bouchaud thanks for your list of key facts supporting the fact that MEMS is a real industry with real history and a really great future; not to be likened to "flying cars" as referenced by @El Presidente.
MEMS will continue to make the world a better, safer, cleaner place - with MEMS in buildings and medical devices we'll see buildings that shut themselves off when no-one is inside them; and stroke patients able to walk and move again thanks stabilization gyros. I could go on and on....

Some facts:
- 50% of all cell phones had a MEMS microphone in 2011, up from 37% in 2010
- 43% of handsets used a MEMS accelerometer in 2011 up from 38% the previous year
- In average there were 10.8 MEMS sensors in each car in 2011...
Yes, there have been some hypes - I remember the bubble switch of HP and the RF MEMS in 2002 - but overall I don't think your comment "Your MEMs technology buddies need a market, one they haven't managed to find yet." is right anymore.
And BTW, even RF MEMS in handsets are no longer a hype, we found the first RF MEMS tuner in a Samsung handset a few weeks ago!

There's no need for potty mouth here as you scratch your balls, Karen ;-) The first use of profanity I've seen in an EE Times piece and, IMO, a very unprofessional attempt to be viewed as "one of the boys". I'm not a prude, and use language on the street that would make a sailor blush, but EE Times is not the venue for such language - save it for the bars and shipping dock.
That aside, you might want to look at a decade ago. MEMS was supposed to "frickin' take off" in 2002 with bubble switches, etc - it didn't. Many investors, VCs in particular, were left holding the bag as MEMS companies folded or fizzled - good luck getting them to ride that horse again. Yes, MEMs is doing well in accelerometers and DLP. but "taking off" hasn't happened, nor will it - anything monolithic CMOS can do, CMOS will do, including clock sources. Yes, MEMs will likely set the world on fire - by going down in flames after the bubble, you are trying to recreate, bursts again.
A gathering of people building flying cars is not going to put one in every garage in any foreseeable future. Your MEMs technology buddies need a market, one they haven't managed to find yet. Cheerleading doesn't create market pull, just creates a false sense of being able to win in a game where nobody bought tickets.
Meanwhile, I'd prefer to have those chemical-laced "manufacturing" facilities, you seem to think are so great, poisoning the Chinese, and not my children's, groundwater and air.
The US needs to focus its direction towards clean and green, not smog and dog.

@Karen, Very informative article. Could you please explain more about "smart buildings that could sell, use or store energy" ? Is it something like buildings will start storing solar energy ? I am not sure how to interpret it.

@Karen...Since potential applications are clearly there, and the technology seems to have reached a point where widespread commercialization is possible, what do you think are the limiting factors inhibiting an explosion of products?

@ROckstar - love the added comments and I agree, it's a long road to commercialization but the rewards can be great - Alissa Fitzgerald and I recently wrote a blog on just that subject "Why is MEMS so hard?" - http://www.electroiq.com/articles/stm/2011/09/mems-product-development-why-is-it-so-hard.html - and it will be a focus of the MEMS symposium I am chairing at Sensors Expo Chicago: http://www.sensorsmag.com/sensors-expo/pre-conference-symposia/symposium-1-mems-mainstream-commercialization-and-product-re

thanks @Divakar and @Markowitz for the added examples - it truly is endless where MEMS is and can be applied to help improve the world -- Quality of Life/medical/bio, smart buildings, smart cities, smart cars...and oh yes smart mobile devices that we can't live without!

Beyond the examples Karen and MP Divakar point out where MEMS can contribute to better quality of life and healthcare are micro-pumps that can continuously inject medicine and monitor (http://bit.ly/A23NSJ); sensors better able to detech glaucoma (http://bit.ly/hnfwRl); and mini labs on chips useful for diagnosis and detection (http://bit.ly/xgMsKM). The number of applications is rich!

I agree with the observation of the parallels with laser development. On the one hand, i agree that mems wil be fricken everywhere, but on the other hand, i also think its taking fricken forever. The apps are clearly there. a viable butane battery alone would be a smash hit, let alone the countless other potential opportunities. The creation of this brave new mems world is obviously difficult, otherwise it would be here already, but it's coming none the less.

Neo1's observation is quite right: MEMS has been hyped for 20+ years, and has slowly found a niche. In this regard, it is much like the laser. Touted as slicing, dicing, and all around wonder device, it just didn't have all of the applications all at once that were claimed for it. As a weapon (tout, tout) your best bet in killing someone was to hit them repeatedly with the thing, or have them touch the power supply; displays? too expensive... just a trick done with mirrors. Yet little by little, lasers (and solid state lasers) found and expanded their own niche.
Don't mistake my slant: MEMS devices are pretty neat: I used to demonstrate the development of gyros by showing off a bunch of them, starting with a basketball-sized unit and finally one the size of a grape. In my hand, for the finale, I had palmed a MEMS gyro... made for a good show. Will MEMS devices explode this year? Maybe, maybe not. But it will be interesting to see...